I'd like it if you started out in a prison camp as a guard or something and the camp gets attacked and then you run about defending the camp while learning the basics until you eventually fight the attackers off. Then the commanding officer noticed you were a pivotal part in defending the camp and entrusts you to go find whoever attacked the camp. At this point you can split off into the world and do what ever you want or continue on the main quest which ends up unfolding into some huge political mess.

I don't mind the prison start, although I would like to escape from the prison as a criminal, rather than be freed because of some wacko emperor's idea.

A shipwreck would be cool, especially if you had to swim/free yourself, make it a little interesting, you know?

I would initiate the player in a feud, between a king and his moot. How well you execute your two or three tasks determines your pc's condition, throughout the game. Who wins would be of no consequence to the story. Instead, their citizenship, wealth, "renown," whatever would be affected. Say you side with kingy, but you fail the tasks, then the moot declares you a fugitive and you're hunted in their jurisdiction. Say you side with the moot, and you complete the tasks, then you walk away with some early booty and some station. I'd also introduce a sympathetic woman, to the player. Some one-eyed, flat-chested veteran of several battles to associate with. A shorty that ain't adoring, has her own opinions, and does not follow you around or hold your crap.

I don't care either way - the one thing I've always liked about starting in a prison is that your first emergence onto the surface is always breathtaking and a defining moment in setting the atmosphere of every Elder Scrolls game. What I'm really interested in is what the first city we arrive in will be like - it'd be great if it was like Daggerfall. Not in sheer scale, but I want to be overwhelmed when I first enter into civilization - numerous guild halls, townspeople of varying profession and alignment, lots of things to see. I think that's what really makes or breaks the first feel of the open world for me.

I want to get rid of the prison theam and replace it. But dont' know what to replace it with. Maybe something like the Origin stories in Dragon Age Origins. I don't really know but we definitely need something new.

I'd keep the prison start of the game but give the player the option to turn off the beginning tutorial.

I don't care too much if the game begins in a prison again or not. I'll be happy as long as they keep the tutorial short and sweet like they did in Morrowind. Even moreso if they give the option of skipping the tutorial altogether. If I had to choose an intro, though, I think I would be in favor of starting out on a ship. Anyone could be on a ship for any reason, so it allows more freedom for the player to justify how they got there. I find it a bit more limiting when trying to justify how my character came to be in prison.

I agree

I'm not too bothered about the precise nature of the starting location, but I would like TES:V to keep to the same formula as Oblivion and Fallout 3 by beginning the game in a restricted area from which you emerge into the exterior gameworld with a "Wow" moment.

Third option.
I want them to implement an "alternate beginnings", like there are mods for. Give us around 9 different kinds of entrances. Why nine you say? Three different ones for the three archetypes, Combat, Magic, and Stealth. The prison one can be included, too, in the Stealth path.

Some nice ideas - the ship / shipwreck start reminds me of The Bourne Identity.

I also like the idea of different starting locations.

I'd actually like to start with creating character background:

Your Father was a [choose race] and worked as a:

City Guard (you get +5 Sword skill and a nice Sword)
Merchant (you get +5 Mercantile and a bag of 100 Septims)
Thief (you get +5 Sneak and a Picklock)
Slave (you get +5 Constitution and +5 Unarmed)
Mage (you get +5 Magicka Skill and a nice pointy hat)
Pig Farmer (you get +50 repel enemies with potent smell and -10 Attraction and a small pig that follows you around)
etc.

Your Mother was a [choose race] and worked as a [choose profession].

Your parents race determines some of your starting stats, their profession determines some of your starting skill bonuses.

Then its adds in the random or selected intro - your Father the Merchant has asked you to go to X to collect 500 septims owing to the family business, en route the ship you are on is attacked, you wake up on a beach with the bodies of your fellow passengers and the wreckage of the ship. You have no idea where you are.

As you make your way around the shore you are captured and knocked out by a troop of [insert race/house] warriors who then turn you into an indentured foot soldier in their army. A battle ensues after which (randomly) your side wins or loses and you get to go free. Now you can do whatever you want - including joining the army / opposing army to work for some cash / xp. There are plenty of small quests to keep you busy and you don't quite know what the MQ is - you have to "discover" it.

[Hope I kept it on topic]

I don't know... while I do think this is a pretty good start, I, personally, love quick, uneventful beginings. I mean, what if I'm an Altmer Noble with no intentions of getting my hands dirty? What if I'm a lowly peasent? This is something I really like about Morrowind's begining. I can stay in character pretty much the whole time.

What would be great, though, would be the option to select from multiple beginings, ala that mod in Oblivion. (probably named "Alternative starts", I can't remember)


I like this. But, like hell I'd choose my father to be anything other than a pig farmer!

To those of you voting for the prison beginning, I want to know why. And "tradition" is not an answer.

Test the viability of my class and character. When I think "prison beginning" mind you, I'm mostly thinking of the demanding dungeons of Arena and Daggerfall that would kill the a poorly built character within five minutes. Not Oblivion's completely staged dungeon romp that gives everyone spells and arrows in the chests.

There should be no poorly built character.

I like the prison beginning because it doesnt tell anything about your background. Also i like the mystery of not knowing why i was in prison,
also i can pretend to myself different reasons why. Furthermore when a person gets out of jail is a good way to get into the game, not just in some random location where you would wonder
"why am i at this particular place?".

Dont know if thats good reason enough for you. Anyway i think other beginnings could probably be good aswell, but i just dont think its necessary to break the tradition when its a decent one

Keep the prison theme, but improve it drastically. You are held hostage or just for fun, by a bunch of bandits or other baddies. You fill your character sheet in the cell, and then you must use your strenghts to bust free of the imprisonment. Your highest attributes or skills grant you several choices, which you must choose from.

-Strenght/hand to hand: break the cell door with brute force.
-Security: lockpick your way out with an improvised pick.
-Speechcraft: persuade your captors to let you go, or seduce one of them, OR talk them into a fight between each others.
-Illusion: cast Chameleon and hide. While they're searching the cell you sneak out. OR use Charm to help seduce/debate your way out.
-Destruction: blast the door open.
-Alteration: cast open
-Conjuration: conjure up something to harass them.
-Alchemy: poison your food and pretend a hunger strike. They might eat it and get sick.
-Mercantile: make them an offer they can't refuse
-Pickpocket: steal the key to the door

Unless your escape was silent, or you fail to sneak past the baddies, you must fight or avoid them. Hand-to-hand is good abviously, since you have no weapons yet. Dodge and high Agility might keep you alive long enough to run from the fight, as well as sanctuary and shield spells. If you have really managed to seduce/charm one on your side, that person will help you in the fight.

Obviously you need the ability to pick some spells from your major spell schools, to be able to use them.

Edit: forgot one thing. The starting location is obviously random. You flee the whatever building you are in, to find yourself in the middle of wilderness. You find a road, and you can start following it in which ever direction you choose to find a town. After a few playthroughs you can pretty much guess where you approximately are, and what town would be nearest. Hardly as boring as Privateer's Hold, the Ship, or the Imperial Prison OVER and OVER again.

It's not a big deal to me, but I would love to NOT start with a tutorial dungeon. I prefer the way Morrowind started. The tutorial and must-do's are very short and simple, and you start out in a small village - the world is yours. I'm not a big fan of spelunking, so starting on a ship closing in to harbor or in some village would be great. Perhaps even change the starting location depending on what race or class you choose? A warrior start in a fort, a mage in the Mages Guild, a thief in a sly tavern etc.

I actually liked the opportunity to get a feel for how the different skills play at the start of Oblivion. Of course, you only really need that experience on your first character. Perhaps completing the tutorial the first time could unlock Express and/or Challenge beginnings. Theoretically you can edit the end of the sewer save to express start new characters, but there's too much roleplay during the tutorial for me to want to do that.

That would be awesome! It would make re-playability go up so much more.

Tradition.




... what the? That worked somehow even though you said it couldn't!

Hey everyone, I just discovered that "tradition" is in fact a possible answer!
[/cheekiness]

In all seriousness though, I don't really care one way or another.

You kept it on topic I think. I love this idea and the mother father race thing would not work anyway to much needed to work on. But I do like the idea and hope they use it or another good one. I don't care as long as it is good and is not a prision start.

Someone has been playing Mount&Blade and Risen.

But already, the PC is given way too much info regarding who the PC really is and limiting the term of what background the PC can have if ya give him/her any form of family relation ingame. The second bit with being force into the army is, well, too forceful of the PC already, not to mention it would go in line of "epic beginning" which would kind of lose the favor in the long run and would take too long to be consider an intro.


But ya can get an intro that does not start at the prison and still able to create ya own background without the petty need of explaining why ya in the Prison cell to begin with. As for the "good way" to get into the game, its in argue that one can just get off the ship or caravan as an intro and give any explanation by the player themselves as to why they are there in the first place. The Main Quest can come out of no where in a varies of forms from quests, letters, and/or event the player does ingame.

And again, Prison Intro was never, ever, a tradition in the Elder Scroll. If one wanted to start with a Prison Intro that badly, go to the nearest guard and punch him in the face.

Starting in prison starts things off with immediate conflict and intrigue...it gets the plot going and gives the player some motivation to pursue it. Aside from that statement, and although I prefer starting the game in conflict, my personal opinion is the whole prison theme is getting a bit old. Here's what limited ideas I've managed to conjure:

This would require careful attention so as not to veer into boring cliche territory, but starting off in a hostile area with a bad case of amnesia would be interesting. Amnesia covers for varying character backgrounds. Perhaps the player jumps right in the middle of a conversation where an authority figure is interrogating you (maybe a bandit ambush) questioning your presence (or identity) and subsequently becoming hostile (along with the rest of his cronies). This could take place in a large secluded place (cave, island, distant town, etc.) and the first part of the game is simply getting out with your bowels intact (if not emptied). Don't hold my hand by presenting the mirage of a maze that is actually just a scripted one-way corridor; make it more challenging than Oblivion's beginning.